WIGS: Garret Dillahunt Talks About ‘Paloma’

RAISING HOPE may be currently on its summer hiatus, but fans of the quirky Fox comedy can still get their fix of Garret Dillahunt by watching the web series “Paloma” from WIGS.

To get more info about “Paloma,” I spoke with Dillahunt (who plays Matthew) about working on the web series, getting directed by Julia Stiles, filling in his character’s story, and more…

(And as a warning, there are spoilers for the entire web series here, so if you haven’t seen it yet, go finish it first!)

Given your busy schedule, how did you get involved with “Paloma”? Garret Dillahunt: I guess they just called. I don’t know if they went through other people [for the role] or if I was always on their mind, but [writer/director] Julia [Stiles] and I were supposed to do a movie together that sort of fell apart the previous summer, so maybe it was an effort to make up for that. But it was a nice phone call to get.

I wanted to work with Julia. I wanted to help her if she needed help. I don’t mean she did need help, but if she was going to do this project, it was like, “I’d love to help you do that.” I like to stay busy, and you’re always looking to do things differently than the last thing you did. When I’m in my hiatus, it was perfect.

Were you familiar with WIGS before you signed on?GD: I wasn’t real familiar with WIGS, but I did know “Blue” that Julia had acted in for WIGS. So I was familiar it was out there. But I didn’t know the ambitiousness of their effort…it’s an exciting new venue [in new media]. A lot of this stuff keeps happening . A very viable place for us to do what we do.

Was there any difference for you in filming the web series versus filming a television show or a movie?GD: Well, I guess there’s really not at all. We were basically filming a series with less constraints. It was sort of like a movie, it was sort of like a TV show. I didn’t see much difference. There was a guy with a camera, I had lines, there was a director.

Given that Julia both wrote and directed “Paloma,” did that chance how you approached anything?GD: I don’t know if it changed how I approached it; I’m sure it changed how she did things: she didn’t have to answer to anybody. She knew the answers to what she was doing…it was a pretty normal process.

The series spans a year in a little under forty minutes. Since so much of what happened for your character, Matthew, was off-screen, did you try and fill in the blanks for what was going on with him? Or were you content to just play what you were given and let the audience draw their own conclusions?GD: I guess, ultimately they’re going to have to do that anyway, regardless of what I did. I certainly would need to do that so I could try and understand what was happening, because sometimes it wouldn’t be clear even to me. I’d be like, “Wait, what? Why is he doing that? I thought he was going this way?” And it was like, “Oh, this is what’s happening.”

With the ambiguity about Paloma and Matthew’s relationship, do you think they had crossed the line by the time the year was over?GD: I guess they did, or he did. I don’t know that they actually did anything [physical] or that she even wanted that, but she certainly made him feel a certain way; he was very affectionate and friendly towards an intern or an employee. And that’s probably not the best move.

Completely true. You had great chemistry with Grace Gummer (Paloma) and Rhys Coiro (Tiago). What can you say about working together? GD: It was great. [Grace] was very funny, likes to laugh, which I think makes the day go by quicker. She was just game. It seems like more and more, ninety percent of what I do depends on do you want to spend X amount of time with these people. It’s almost more important than the project or the pay. It’s just is this going to be in the “life’s too short” pile or “thank God I did this” pile? And she’s one of those people who seems is not going to drain your energy — she’s going to give you something.”

I liked working with Rhys — I thought he came off strong in this. He’s a very shy fellow and quiet in real life. I met his wife, who’s a film director, a year or two before, because we were going to potentially do a project, so I was familiar with the Coiro clan. So I was excited to work with Rhys. I think he was also originally cast as my brother, Francis, in [the movie] THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT, and he had to drop out because of some other commitment, and we got some other hack in there named Aaron Paul [now on BREAKING BAD] to do it and that worked out alright. But I was happy to finally work with Rhys.

Julia had mentioned in one of the featurettes that the scene of Paloma, Matthew, and Tiago interacting wasn’t in the original draft… GD: I didn’t know that…it was always there [in my script]. And she’s right, it is important. Why would you want to miss that? [Laughs]

It’s a delicious tension. GD: You want to see that train wreck happen!

At the end of the series, there was the hint more “Paloma” was possible. Have you heard anything about that? GD: I haven’t heard. But WIGS plays things close to the vest, so it’s not surprising I haven’t heard.

If they approached you, would you be game for more? GD: Sure! I loved working with Julia.